Portland Takes Another Step Toward "Vision Zero"

A city without deaths and serious injures from traffic crashes?

That's the goal of Portland's Vision Zero Executive Committee, which took their city-wide listening tour to Legacy Emanuel Medical Center Monday night.

"Last year, 37 people died in crashes on our streets," Mayor Hales said. "Many more were seriously injured. It doesn’t have to be this way."

The Vision Zero Task Force is considering many ideas on how to make the streets safer including: using marijuana or alcohol tax revenue to increase funding for anti-DUII efforts, getting state permission to lower the speed limit on city streets and increasing penalties for people who "repeatedly drive in a dangerous manner."

Legacy Emanuel is one of two Level 1 trauma hospitals in Portland. In 2014, the last year for which complete numbers are available, they treated 2,586 trauma patients: 40 percent were involved in a motor vehicle or other motorized transport collision, 8 percent were struck by a vehicle and 4 percent were in bicycle crashes.

The city, citing statistics from the National Safety Council, says that the cost of these crashes is tremendous not only emotionally but economically.

The council says the economic cost per crash of an incapacitating injury is $70,500, and for a non-incapacitating injury, $22,700.

The city has set up a website with more information on the Vision Zero plan.